Nevada Isn't The Most Sinful State After All - But It's Close

You’d think Nevada — home to “Sin City” — would be America’s most sinful state. Not so, according to the personal finance site WalletHub, which ranked each state based on what it calls a “vice index.”

The Silver State came in third on the rankings, behind America's most sinful state, Florida, and neighboring California. The folks in Vermont, the least sinful state, are virtuous in comparison.

Nevada's 3rd place ranking comes with a vice index of 53.51.

The study considered seven “sins” — obviously — to determine its rankings: anger and hatred, jealousy, excesses and vices, greed, lust, vanity and laziness. WalletHub evaluated those qualities using 38 relevant metrics, which it weighted. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the highest level of sinfulness.

Nevada topped the list in two categories - laziness and greed. It's also the fifth most jealous state. When it comes to anger and hatred and excesses and vices, Nevada ranked 30th and 20th, respectively.
Here's how Nevada ranked in each category:

• Anger and Hatred: 30th
• Jealousy: 5th
• Excesses and Vices: 20th
• Greed: 1st
• Lust: 14th
• Vanity: 29th
• Laziness: 1st

A map of the rankings shows southern states are decidedly more sinful than their northern counterparts.

Anger and hate

To evaluate anger and hate, WalletHub analyzed a states violent crimes per capita. Alaska was the most angry state while Maine was the lease angriest.

Jealousy

To decide which state was most jealous, WalletHub looked at thefts per capita. New Mexico was the most jealous state and New Hampshire was the least.

Excesses and vices

The site looked at excessive drinking to determine rankings for excesses and vices. Wisconsin ranked first in excessive drinking and Oklahoma ranked the least.

Avarice

WalletHub reviewed population percentage with gambling disorders to evaluate avarice. Mississippi had the lowest percentage of its population with a gambling disorder while Michigan had the highest number.

Lust
For this category, the site looked at the average time spent on “adult entertainment” sites. Mississippi topped the list. Rhode Island residents spent the least amount of time on such sites.

Vanity

To determine how vain a state is, WalletHub looked at the number of beauty salons per capita. New York, unsurprisingly, had the most and Alaska — equally unsurprisingly — had the least.

Laziness

Finally, the study looked at how inactive a state’s adults were to determine which state was the laziest. According to WalletHub, while Nevada was named the laziest, Arkansas had the highest percentage of couch potatoes while Colorado had the least.

Click here to see the complete list and methodology.

Image via Julie Jacobson/Associated Press. Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.